Corona del Mar sweeps Surf League girls’ tennis finals for second straight year
The Corona del Mar High girls’ tennis team has dominated since entering the Sunset Conference last year, winning every Surf League match and crossover match with the Wave League.
That team dominance also has translated nicely to individual success.
The Sea Kings swept the Surf League finals Wednesday afternoon at home. CdM junior Hannah Jervis won the singles title, edging Lauren Nguyen of Los Alamitos 7-6 (7-5), 7-5 in the final. CdM junior Reece Kenerson and sophomore Jane Paulsen won the doubles title, topping Kristin Eliassen and Hailey Chin of Los Alamitos 6-2, 6-2 in the title match.
All three Sea Kings advance to the CIF Southern Section Individuals tournament, which begins Nov. 25 at a site to be determined.
Jervis’ match against Nguyen, the last one completed, featured several momentum swings. Jervis was up 4-1 in the first set, but Nguyen battled to force a tiebreaker. Nguyen went up 5-2 in the breaker before Jervis won the last five points.
Nguyen led 5-4 and served for the second set, but Jervis won three straight games to win the match.
“I thought Hannah played really steady,” CdM coach Jamie Gresh said. “She just kind of had that mentality, ‘You’re going to have to win the set, I’m not going to give you any easy errors.’ The next thing you know, it’s 5-all, and then Hannah played the next two games really well. At the crucial moments, I think Hannah stepped up her game and played a little more solid, a little smarter. It just comes down to mental focus and some resiliency there.”
Jervis, who beat Fountain Valley sophomore Nghi Trinh 6-3, 6-1 in the semifinals, said she was pleased to continue her progression. She advanced to the Trinity League singles semifinals as a freshman at Mater Dei. Last year, she and Kenerson were the Surf League doubles runner-up.
“Every year, I’ve gotten one place higher,” Jervis said. “It feels really good. A lot of my work I’ve been putting in has paid off.”
Kenerson and Paulsen played well to beat the Griffins duo in the doubles title match, but only after an intense semifinals win over their CdM teammates, Olivia Sipiora and Tori Varela. Kenerson and Paulsen edged out a 6-4, 7-5 victory.
Kenerson and Paulsen rallied from a 4-2 deficit in the first set.
“I think Olivia and Tori played great, and I think we played pretty well, too,” Kenerson said. “Everyone was kind of nervous. It’s hard playing your teammates, especially when it was close. It was just kind of awkward for everyone, and the parents, but I think both teams actually handled it really well. Yeah, it was awkward, but at the end everything was fine and back to normal again.
“I was worried the whole match. I would have probably cried if we would have lost. It could have gone either way.”
CdM sophomore Kristina Veskovic, who lost to Nguyen in the singles semifinals, beat Trinh 8-5 in the third-place match and will be an alternate for CIF Indivdiuals. So will Sipiora and Varela, who beat CdM teammates Ashley Thomas and Cate Montgomery 8-6 in the doubles third-place match.
Thomas and Montgomery, the No. 2 seeds in doubles, were upset 6-1, 6-2 by Los Alamitos’ Eliassen and Chin in the semifinals.
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